“Pokken Fighters” is Concept of Pokemon Future

At a Japanese event not too long ago, there was a video showing the history of the Pokemon franchise. It was a fairly well made video, but probably wouldn’t have have mattered nearly as much if not for a short two or three second clip at the end, which showed an almost fighter-like set-up starring Lucario.

People liked what they saw, and a series of trademarks just pushed things further. One of those trademarks, Pokken Fighters, seemed to fit. A tweet (which was later deleted) by an employee of Namco Bandai deepened the mystery, and people thought it might mean the team behind Soul Calibre was working on a Pokemon fighting game.

Nintendo Life recently ran an interview with Junichi Masuda and Hironobu Yoshida and took the opportunity to ask just what the picture above entailed. Was it really Pokken Fighters? The answer may not have been what some had hoped for, although it still leaves room for some interpretation.

One final question: we’ve spotted a certain video on the internet from an event in Japan showing a short clip of Lucario fighting Blaziken on a street scene, which looks suspiciously like Wii U graphics… Was this a teaser for a true Pokémon title for the Wii U?

Junichi Masuda: [smiles] Ooh, I wonder what it was… I’m not sure… [laughs]

NL: Oh go on! Don’t dash our dreams!

Junichi Masuda: That was actually a video which was shown at the Pokémon Games Show, an event in Tokyo last month and it was showing the history of Pokémon games as well as the future. It was kind of a concept about what the future of Pokemon may look like…